U.S Immigration Program Set to Assist Foreign Farmhands

July 04 2008 by Charlotte Norman

With the U.S discovering that the days of home-grown traditional farmhands have gone. A new federal U.S visa program has been introduced with the hope of recruiting foreign labour.

The program introduced by the U.S Immigration and Citizenship Services, is being viewed by farm owners as an alternative to the H-2A visas. Farm owners are becoming increasingly desperate to attract workers, especially in the build up to seasonal changes.

The problem which many U.S farmers are finding is that local workers are not interested in taking up the employment vacancies to harvest produce in farms across the U.S. This is partly down to the low wages which are on offer in such work.

It is thought that the new visa program will come into play before the next harvest season, giving farm owners an alternative to the H-2A visas.

The recruiting of farm help has in recent years been directed at seasonal workers whom are willing to accept placements for limited periods whilst work demand is high. In recruiting such workers farm owners have turned to the H-2A visas in order to bring in staff.

This situation has been a topical discussion point amongst U.S statesmen after Congress failed to pass reform immigration legislation in 2007.

Talking about the challenges been faced by U.S farmers, Erik Nicholson from the United Farm Workers Union said "Agriculture is a global industry, so we're building an international infrastructure to advocate for these global workers".

The situation has risen to a present climax with farm owners paying large sums of money in order to get workers legally into the country. The problem does not stop with farm hands either as many U.S industries are feeling the pressure with tougher immigration laws making it more difficult to obtain visas and hire illegal foreign workers.

On the other side the new program is not an entirely positive prospect as due to its high cost and bureaucratic procedures it has been avoided where possible by farm managers.

Acknowledging these concerns the government has however created a program to guide farmers through the application procedure and cut document processing time.

With the present presidential elections looming, the issue of immigration has been at the forefront of both parties campaigns. Addressing potential voters in Mexico, candidate John McCain acknowledged the growing issues of temporary workers and announced in particular his support to the introduction of temporary work visas for migrant workers.

McCain said "The U.S, Mexico and the other countries in the hemisphere need a program for migratory labour that has time constraints that would be controlled with biometric systems."

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